blasthaus presents MICHAEL MAYER w/BENOIT & SERGIO

FRI MAR 15 blasthaus presents MICHAEL MAYER (Kompakt) BENOIT & SERGIO (Spectral, DFA, Visionquest) http://www.blasthaus.com Mezzanine / 444 Jessie St / SF / 21+ / $16.50 Tier1 Tix Kompakt founder, MICHAEL MAYER, finally makes his way back to SF alongside the up and coming and highly acclaimed duo, BENOIT & SERGIO, for an event you won't want to miss! Mayer's new release, Mantasy, is his first full-length in eight years and it's no surprise that reviews have hit the top of the charts on an international scale. Benoit & Sergio, DC’s power team, bring their own celebrated unique style that transcends all boundaries of tech-house and electro-pop, creating a pristine sound like no other. As a DJ, producer and remixer, Michael Mayer remains one of Germany's core celebrities in dance music. It's no secret that he spends his weekends traveling around the globe. It's likely throughout his career he's played in front of millions. Then, as a co-owner of Kompakt, he spends his weekdays deciding what will be released on the label and working with the label's artists and overseeing Kompakt's distribution wing - the home of over 50 record labels. Amazingly enough, he manages to sneak into the studio on occasion to produce his own music and remix the likes of Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, Foals and Rufus Wainwright. And of course there is Supermayer but more on that later. It's safe to say he loves being challenged and regardless of the pressure is never putting less than 100% of his heart and soul into everything he does. Since the early 90's Mayer has been playing and producing music, but 1998 became the pivotal year, as Kompakt was born. Mayer, together with Reinhard Voigt and Tobias Thomas united in the studio to record the full length, Geben und Nehmen (Ladomat) as Forever Sweet and thus Kompakt was born - inspired by Andy Warhol's Factory, Kompakt was the realization of creating a complete outlet for creative freedom in the music business and today boasts a label, record store, distributor, recording studios and booking agency. Michael's first mix CD Kompakt Köln Presents Michael Mayer (Neuton) would herald this new age for Cologne electronic music. And, it was with their, Total Confusion, arguably the longest running club night in Cologne, that was the stepping stone for Mayer's international DJ career. "The most wonderful challenge is to combine great party music as undogmatic as possible, and to find an aesthetic link between different music styles" states Mayer. 2002 brought the release of Immer - heralded as one of the decade's most essential mix CD's by the likes of Pitchfork, FACT and Resident Advisor. His flawless mix proclaimed a new dawn for techno and house. His 2003 mix CD for Fabric again proved that Michael was beating a different drum compared to the rest of the pack. He had finally brought the sound of Kompakt to a global level that had never been accomplished until that point. Following a slew of 12'' releases, in 2005 he took the time off to produce his debut album Touch. In the dawning age of post minimal, Touch combined different aspects of house, techno, and even cosmic disco which Mayer relates to his ties with early italo-disco. Touch was an accomplishment of Mayer uniting a lifetime of influences. 2007 was the year of Supermayer. Following a string of remixes for Losoul and Geiger, the friendship and musical connection between Superpitcher and Michael Mayer reached it's fruition. Their playfulness and open spirit in music, freedom and hilarity was embraced by the public with their debut full length Save The World. Michael recalls "Supermayer is like Alice In Wonderland. A door opens up and you enter a world where you can do anything you like". Their celebrated album brought forward an elaborative a/v live show (for the first time ever) taking them to numerous festivals including Coachella, Fiber Fib and Primavera Sound. Most recently, Kompakt has seen the long-awaited release of Michael's sophomore album Mantasy, the long-awaited, indispensable update of Michael Mayer’s production sound and an essential release for the label in 2012: "It's my second solo album, but for me it’s really the first one”, says Michael, and indeed the masterful sequencing and high production value bear witness to an artist in full control of his medium. The album’s title refers to the escapist momentum of a cinematic journey into the unknown, a tribute to history’s great explorers, to characters obsessed with an idea, to totally wrong conceptions of the world and faulty sea charts, to inconceivable exertions, all that lunacy“, but also an intimate trip to the core of the Kompakt sound itself, whose main ambassador has always been Michael Mayer. Benoit & Sergio set the stage; they don’t make dance tracks—they tell stories. The Washington, DC duo’s music is essentially a sense of place and narrative that infuses their rhythms and melodies, transcending the confines of “tech-house” or “electronic pop” and entering a genre-free realm of cinematic imagery and visceral pleasures. With their playful flamboyant lyrics and incredibly lush production style, they bring a much needed dose of pop swagger to the world of electronic music. Benoit & Sergio draw from influences mostly uncommon to the house-and-techno zeitgeist—bands like Talking Heads, Pavement, Roxy Music, Paul Simon—while keeping an ear towards electronic-music contemporaries like Isolee, Thomas Melchior, and Ricardo Villalobos. The resulting tracks pulse with hooks and atmosphere, proudly flying their creators’ freak flag while giving listeners a little something extra to dance about. Benoit & Sergio debuted in 2009 with What I’ve Lost, a trippy, colorful EP released on Bruno Pronsato’s boutique label, thesongsays. The EP displays a sleazy, romantic pop sensibility, with lyrics about loneliness, French girls, wine, and cocaine. What I’ve Lost received a deluge of praise upon its release, including a 4.5/5 from Resident Advisor and support from DJs including Seth Troxler, Shaun Reeves, and Ryan Crosson (who eventually became Sergio’s partner in another Spectral duo, Birds & Souls). On “Midnight People”, Benoit & Sergio’s first single for Spectral Sound, the duo flex their club muscles, crafting lurid soundtracks for gritty techno parties. “For me,” Benoit says, “a good track either has an amazing sound, an amazing groove, or an amazing hook / melody. This goes for any genre.” Flouting the concept of genre altogether, Benoit & Sergio’s music contains all three. http://www.blasthaus.com http://www.kompakt.fm/artists/michael_mayer https://soundcloud.com/kompakt/michael-mayer-good-times http://www.facebook.com/benoitandsergio https://soundcloud.com/benoitandsergio http://pitchfork.com/features/rising/8984-benoit-sergio/